Uprush
by jess is a shark
Summary: Uprush: n. The rush of water from a breaking wave onto a beach. Also, an upward rush, as of consciousness. Different little scenes and moments throughout Annie Cresta's life, from childhood to old age.
1. Mermaids

**Annie at 11 Years Old**

"Lucy, when I'm grown, I'm going to be a mermaid."

Lucy Cresta laughed, the way everyone always did. Annie never knew what to feel when they laughed. Usually she just pretended like she didn't notice. Her older sister's fingers brushed Annie's cheeks as she collected the dark curls that had fallen down in front of her face. "Are you, now, Annie?"

"Yes." Annie sat up a little taller as she said it, squinting against the harsh light of the sun. She didn't like the sun much. Not when she was out in the open, at least. It was too bright, too hot, too everything. When she was in the water, it felt perfect.

"And how do you suppose you're going to do that?" Lucy said, in that certain tone of voice where Annie could just _hear_ her smiling. She combed through the same spot in Annie's hair over and over, gently working through the knots and tangles. Annie loved coming down to the bay with her sister. Ever since mother had gotten sick Lucy was busy taking care of everyone, and Annie missed her. She missed the childlike grin that was present only near the water, in the crisp, salty, ocean air. She missed it because, of course, she missed Lucy looking happy, but also it reminded her of mother, and mother never smiled anymore. If she was even awake, all she did was stare at nothing in particular.

Annie dragged her toes in the chilly water and watched as it undulated and rippled away. Baby waves. She shrugged, causing her hair to fall forward again. Lucy sighed good-naturedly from behind her, and her sister's warm breath wrapped around her neck like a silky scarf. "Dunno, exactly. I just figure if I swim every day, all day long, then eventually I'll just be forced to adapt."

Lucy laughed again, but this time Annie knew it was a kind laugh. "You're a smart kid, Annie."

"We're learning about adapting in school. So I thought about it, and I decided I'm going to adapt to be a mermaid."

"I'm not sure if that's how it works, baby girl," Lucy replied tentatively, massaging Annie's shoulders and leaning forward into her. She went on and said something else, but Annie's attention had drifted back to the water beneath them. Annie had never understood docks. How could a big piece of wood support so much weight? And why didn't it just float away? She flicked the surface of the water with her toes, sending little droplets flying, and creating more baby waves.

_I could live in water forever,_ she thought, smiling to herself. _I'm meant to be a mermaid._

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**I came up with this idea and liked it a lot (; So basically this is a collection of separate little drabbles and one-shots from Annie's life. And yes, you'll get to see a lot of our other beloved canon characters. Including Finnick. There will be a LOT of Finnick, trust me. Haha. Some chapters will be shorter or longer than others, just depends on the topic of the chapter. Enjoy, and leave me a review if you can c: Thanks lovies!**_  
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	2. Absent Annie

**Annie at 12 Years Old**

Annie didn't like the reaping because it made everyone sad. She just wanted people to be happy all the time. Usually she could do something silly and get a smile or two, but around the time of the reaping, she just got yelled at, and much like sad people, being yelled at was something she didn't particularly care for either.

This year, Annie had to be in the reaping, too. This didn't seem to be a very good thing, by the way everyone acted. But no one would tell her why it was so terrible. She had tried to ask, too.

"I mean, it's just the Games," she had said, hoping it would come out as casual she meant it to, "and they're called 'games' aren't they? It's not real, is it?"

Lucy just gave her a strange, sad look and went back to washing the dishes without saying anything.

She got to wear a beautiful ivory dress with lace trim to her first reaping. Annie didn't wear dresses much because they were too pretty to ruin in the bay, where she often swam with her clothes on. She didn't quite think they suited her either. But this dress was soft and smooth and flowing, just like the water she loved so much. Lucy looked much prettier than herself, of course. Annie's sister was tall and dark-haired, with a splash of freckles across her pale cheeks that brought attention to her standard District 4 eyes. Her hair wasn't as curly or untamable as Annie's was. Lucy looked especially gorgeous because she was in one of mother's old dresses and it made their resemblance even more obvious than usual. Speaking of mother…

"Is mom going to come this year?" Annie suspected she knew the answer. Mother hadn't come the year before, or the year before that, either. But she could still hope, and it certainly wouldn't hurt to ask.

Lucy smiled, but it was a half-hearted little sympathetic smile. _People even smile sadly this time of the year,_ Annie thought. "No, baby girl, mom's too sick to come today." Lucy smoothed down Annie's hair and placed her hand on her shoulder, gently steering her out the door.

Unless they were like mother, everyone had to go the reaping. They all gathered in the big town square, smack in the middle of District 4. Annie didn't like the town square because it was too far away from the ocean. You could barely smell the salt in the air anymore. Plus it was a rather long walk from home, and by the time they got there Annie's feet were throbbing in her uncomfortable white plastic shoes and she knew she still had to stand for at least another hour while the reaping took place.

"Annie, look at me." Annie turned on her heels and made eye contact with her sister, deciding she would probably be there for a bit while Lucy talked like she did every year, so she sat – but on her hands, just so the nice dress wouldn't get wrecked. "I need you to pay attention this time, okay? Don't go off into your head. Now's not the time for daydreaming."

"I can't help it," Annie complained. "It's just so _boring_…"

Lucy frowned and lifted Annie's chin high with her index finger. "You could go, now. Your name's in that bowl. Only once. But it's there. Annie, I know you know the Games are a real thing. You know that, don't you? What we watch every year – that's actually happening."

Annie wasn't sure she _had_ known that, but she swallowed hard and gave a meek nod anyway.

"I love you, baby girl. It's all going to be okay. Don't you worry your pretty little head." Lucy smiled again, but instead of sad or happy smile, this one just looked fake to Annie. She planted a warm kiss on Annie's forehead and smoothed her hair again, though Annie knew it wouldn't help the rat's nest of thick, curly locks that was her hair.

"Okay," Annie agreed, standing up and taking Lucy's hand in her own.

When they got closer to the square, some big and rather scary Peacekeepers made Lucy go in one direction and Annie go in the other. Annie shook out her feet as she walked, trying to pick out shapes in the few clouds in the sky to distract herself from the aching and stinging that was sure to become a good few blisters later. Annie liked to think that the sky was really water too, and that maybe people lived underwater but they didn't know it because it was normal. She thought there could be a whole other underwater world above this one, and maybe below the sea, too. She liked that idea, no matter what her science teacher said about outer space and the earth's core and yadda yadda. Because then maybe everyone was a mermaid and they just didn't know it, and maybe—

Annie's thoughts were interrupted when she ran straight into a boy that she recognized from school. He made a funny gasping noise and then turned around and rolled his eyes. "Absent Annie's here," he muttered to the girl next to him, who looked like she didn't know how to respond except to scoot a few baby steps forward.

"I'm sorry, Kai," Annie said, offering a friendly smile. Kai shrugged and turned around again, still muttering to the people next to him. "Um, do we just stand here?" No one answered her, so she figured she'd just stay put until someone told her to move. She recognized the faces here, anyway, even though she wasn't sure whether or not she was happy to be so near to Kai. He put strange words in front of her name when he talked to her, like 'absent' or 'insane'. Lucy overheard him one time and yelled at him and then said he was only jealous because Annie had an imagination and he clearly didn't.

Suddenly, everyone in the crowd stopped talking all at one time. Annie stood up on her tiptoes to try to get a better view of the reaping stage, but Kai did the same so that she could see hardly anything. But it was fine, because she saw this every year anyway. The funny-looking lady had probably just arrived.

"Welcome one, welcome all, to the 65th annual Hunger Games reaping!" Annie couldn't remember the lady's name for the life of her, but she definitely recognized the voice as it echoed eerily across the square. "How exciting to be back to see your fresh and lovely faces! Is District 4 excited for this year's Games?" Everyone cheered, just like they always did. Some of the older children seemed genuinely thrilled, while most of those near Annie seemed to be wearing the same phony smiles that Lucy had put on earlier. Annie didn't say anything. She just wanted to sit down, but she didn't; because she knew about the cameras.

She allowed her thoughts to wander during the long speech about Panem's history, but then felt a little guilty when she returned to reality because Lucy had told her not to. She figured it was probably alright this one time because the speech never ever changed anyway. She tugged lightly on a strand of her own hair to remind herself to stay present while the lady, whom she could now see since Kai had given up on blocking her view, shuffled her hand around in the girl's bowl.

The lady had weird greenish skin, big, hard-looking black hair, and too-long eyelashes that were a bit reminiscent of spiders. Her eyes, come to think of it, looked unnaturally big as well. The lady looked a little bit different every year. This year she seemed to have attempted to dress to match the theme of District 4 and had worn a bulky dress which seemed to be made out of rope. Annie tied knots a lot when she got bored, and she wondered how scratchy and hot it was inside that dress. It looked a little hard to move in. The strange lady held the piece of paper she had picked up to the sunlight and beamed as she called out, "Ariadne Horan!"

It seemed like ages before the girl made it up to the stage. Annie recognized her because she was always out on the water throwing a spear around at the fish. She was a few years older than Lucy, Annie thought. Ariadne ran a hand through her hair and then greeted the strange lady with a firm handshake and a stony expression.

"And now for the boys," the lady trilled in her odd accent, smiling too wide, "we have…Finnick Odair!"

There was a quiet, collective sigh of relief as all the children in the crowd realized they'd made it another year without being reaped, but Annie was not joining in – instead, she chewed her lower lip nervously and tugged at her hair again. She knew the boy because he was Lucy's age, and she saw them talking together sometimes. Lucy seemed to like him a lot. If what Lucy said about the Games really being real was true…

Annie fell back onto her heels. She didn't remember what the boy looked like and didn't really want to know. She wanted to go home more than ever.

"Aren't you a fit young man?" the strange lady squeaked, giggling. "And a lovely young lady as well! There you have it, ladies and gentlemen! Give it up for this year's tributes!"

The crowd clapped. Annie played with the hem of her dress anxiously. The lady talked some more, but Annie just stared at the back of Kai's legs as if they were the most interesting things in the world. When they were dismissed, Annie was the first one to rush out.

She decided she most definitely did not like the reaping.


	3. The Ocean

**Annie at 12 Years Old**

District 4 was wealthy. Not quite as favored by the Capitol as 1 and 2, however; so there were certainly sketchier neighborhoods in the large, coastal district. The closer you lived to the center of the district, the more money and stature your family had. Not all of the children there were trained for the Games, only the ones whose parents had the highest-respected (and highest-paid) jobs.

Neither Annie nor Lucy had ever been trained past picking up a few tidbits of potentially useful knowledge here and there. Their father was a fisherman, like the majority of District 4 men over 18. He wasn't around often. The fishermen and the sailors never really were. They would stay on the opposite side of the district than their families for months at a time, sending back the paycheck via a special, faster postage service than the other families used. The children didn't mind. It was all they knew.

The Crestas lived on the cusp of the pretty, rich neighborhoods that made up a thick border around the town square. Their home was closer to the district's bay than the actual ocean, which was more of a tourist destination for Capitol people than anything. Annie's father had always been coming and going for work, but as soon as mother had gotten sick a few years before, he did an awful lot more going.

Annie spent most of her free time at the bay, wishing the ocean was more accessible and less full of odd-looking, annoying people. After her first reaping, she ran home, went upstairs to kiss her mother on the cheek, wrote Lucy a note detailing her whereabouts, and headed to the ocean to think.

It was a long walk. Longer than the walk to the town square, even. She'd made sure to take off the painful shoes, but hadn't bothered to change her clothes. The dress was actually quite comfortable, and she figured Lucy was smart enough with cleaning that she'd be able to fix it if Annie decided to swim (which she knew she would).

When she arrived at the beach, it was empty. Though she hadn't expected it, she supposed it made sense. All the Capitol residents would want to be at home for all the excitement of the Games. The people of District 4 weren't exactly going to be having any fun family outings on such a solemn day, either. _Maybe if they did, everyone wouldn't be quite so sad,_ she thought.

The only time that Annie really liked feelings was when she was near the water. Otherwise, feelings and emotions made things complicated. She felt bad things so often that when she did have the opportunity to feel something good, it was still tainted with little reminders of the ugly stuff. But overall she knew she liked feelings, because if no one had them, she wouldn't be able to feel the warm, soft sand between her toes; or the crisp and humid sea breeze caressing her skin, and she liked those feelings very much. They were more tangible than happiness and sadness, more certain; more stable. Some people would describe those things as bringing happiness, but Annie didn't think of it that way. To her it was more like a release from all the convoluted emotions. They distracted her, comforted her, lulled her into a state of mind she couldn't explain.

Near the north-most point of the beach, the sand grew rougher and rocky, filled with great, towering piles of boulders that surrounded tiny tide pools which teemed with life. Annie climbed the rocks whenever she came here, because it gave her a better view of everything, and gave her a good place to jump off of into the water. Whenever she came with Lucy she had to pretend to be careful; climbing slowly and thoughtfully placing her hands and feet on the smooth, slippery rocks. But Annie knew the rocks well, and she wasn't afraid to fall. Falling didn't even cross her mind. She felt that even if she did fall, she'd just float to the ground.

Annie gathered her dress in her fists, bent her knees, closed her eyes, and jumped.

When she hit the water, everything disappeared except her own heart beating in her ears. She kicked her way to the surface and took a big, gulping breath, shaking her wet hair out her face. The skirt of her dress bubbled up around her, the light fabric practically glowing just under the surface of the water. She looked like some large and bizarre jellyfish. Not a mermaid, but close enough. Annie smiled to herself and blew bubbles, savoring the cold splashing of the waves against her skin.

In the distance, she could see a fishing boat appearing on the horizon, probably returning after a few weeks out on the open ocean. She wondered if her father was on it. Slim chance; District 4 had hundreds of boats. But if he was…would he come home? Or would he jump straight on another boat and go out again, like he normally did? All the boats should be starting their journey back now; they were required to sail back for the Hunger Games, but usually most of them didn't. 4's Peacekeepers weren't strict. The Capitol liked them enough, they weren't checked on often.

She closed her eyes and submerged again. The salt stung her eyes, and she didn't need sight underwater anyway. The sea creatures left her alone, and any rocks were far below her on the ocean floor. On land she would feel clumsy and lost without her eyes, but movement in water was natural to her regardless.

A strand of seaweed tickled Annie's leg, and she reached down and closed her fingers around it gently, wondering where the current had brought it from. Sometimes she wished the current would take _her_ away, to…where? She didn't know, really. All Annie knew was that she understood now, what Lucy had said about the Games being real. And she didn't like it one bit.

She felt stupid. Naive. And she was, for ever believing any different. But she didn't know how _not_ to be. Why wasn't everything in the world good? She wished it were. Everything in the water was simple. Things were only killed for survival. Not in some sadistic, televised game, for _entertainment_. It was disgusting. And now as she thought about Finnick and Ariadne going off to be slaughtered, and to be forced to slaughter others…

Annie swallowed as much seawater as she could without gagging. No matter how much she loved the ocean, she had to admit it didn't exactly taste fantastic. The salt burned her throat and left a sour taste in her mouth, but it was a good distraction from the frightening thoughts swimming around in her brain.

She'd lost track of time, like she often did when she came here; but this time she was alone. There was no one to remind her that the world hadn't temporarily stopped turning. She didn't want to walk all the way home in the dark, and there would be no one willing to give her a taxi ride this time of the night, especially after the reaping. Everyone would be inside, celebrating with their families because their children were safe. Or, in the Horans' and Odairs' cases, grieving because they weren't.

So she slept on the sand, fashioning herself a little mound for a pillow. It was surprisingly comfortable, laying there alone in the darkness. She felt safe and content; and sleep found her effortlessly. She drifted into unconsciousness with her heartbeat syncing to the steady crashing of the waves against the shore.

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**Hey guys...you should tell me what moments I should write about in the future ;D What do you want to read? Let me know! And it doesn't have to be any sort of canon moment - use your imagination! I can't guarantee I'll do them all, but if I use your idea I'll definitely give you credit for it. (:**

**I'm thinking I'm going to continue going in chronological order from here and then if I'm inspired to write something randomly out of order, I'll just do that. This doesn't really have any particular format, hah.** **And as you can see from this chapter and the first two some will come right after another, and others will s****kip large spaces of time. ****Hope you're enjoying so far. c:** **I really love writing Annie! And thank you so much for your reviews so far!  
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